‘We are on top of the game’: NPAZ

Nyore Madzianike

THE National Prosecuting Authority of Zimbabwe (NPAZ) says it is “on top of the game” in as far as fighting crime is concerned, having already surpassed last year’s trials and conviction records at the Harare Magistrates Court – the largest court in Zimbabwe.

In an interview on ZTN Prime’s Morning Rush, Harare district provincial prosecutor Mr Tafara Chirambira said the Prosecutor General’s vision was now in full swing and the results were there for everyone to witness.

Mr Chirambira said the NPAZ assigned senior prosecutors to deal with serious crimes like murder, armed robberies, illicit financial dealings, drugs and human trafficking.

“We have assigned our best personnel on the ground and I am happy to announce and to tell the country that so far the results have been coming in quick and fast.

“We continue to encourage members of the public to also be cooperative and to also play their part in helping us assist in protecting them,” he said.

Commenting on corruption cases, Mr Chirambira named the media for creating the ‘catch and release’ phenomena saying prosecuting corruption cases was a process.

Mr Chirambira revealed that they have completed 42 corruption cases in Harare since the beginning of the year.

“That is an increase because last year we only had 30 for the whole year. This year, up to now, we have completed 42 of them. And the conviction rate in corruption cases is approximately 53 percent.

“So to me, that is a pass. It’s just above average, but we will continue improving.

“If we can complete 42 cases just in Harare district alone, I would wonder and I am very eager to see or to hear how much as a country we have managed to succeed and how much as the NPA we have managed to do so that we gain the confidence of the people that we serve,” he said.

On cases involving financial illicit dealings, Mr Chirambira indicated that Harare district recorded about 12 percent completion on trials with ‘slightly above 90 percent conviction rate’.

On average, convicted people were sentenced between three to six months.

He indicated that Harare district dealt with 358 cases involving touts and all have been convictions because they pleaded guilty.

On drugs, he said they received 96 cases this year involving marijuana, crystal meth and cocaine.

Out of the 96 cases, 80 resulted in convictions, while 16 cases are pending.

On human trafficking, Mr Chirambira indicated that they have prosecuted four human trafficking matters.

Commenting on social media reports by some legal practitioners and activists accusing the prosecution of trembling on accused persons’ rights by ‘unnecessarily’ opposing the granting of bail, Mr Chirambira said:

“If you come across these allegations, does that come to the attention of the NPA? Yes, yes. We have a case.

“We are on social media, just like you, just like everyone else, we then learnt that we saw pictures and we were told that there’s a schoolchild that is amongst, I think it was initially a group of 77 individuals who had been arrested for whatever misdemeanour.

“And what we then did as the NPA is we took an active role and we actually sent the investigating officers to say, can you investigate this? The investigating officer has brought about results in the process of seeing how we can assist a schoolchild.

“It’s unfortunate that you see, the law is played out in court. It’s not played out on social media.”